Systems and methods for aligning vehicle charging mechanisms with infrastructure

Abstract

A method of charging an electric vehicle including: sensing a relative location of a charging head of the electric vehicle with respect to a charging connection of a charging station using one or more sensors; generating relative location information related to the relative location; and displaying information related to the relative location information on a display of the electric vehicle.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method of charging an electric vehicle comprising:
 sensing a relative location of a charging head of the electric vehicle with respect to a charging connection of a charging station using one or more sensors;   generating relative location information related to the relative location; and   displaying information related to the relative location information on a display of the electric vehicle.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein one or more of the one or more sensors comprise one or more of lidar, radar, sonar, RFID, or ultrasonic sensors. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein one or more sensors are mounted on the charging station and one or more sensors are mounted on the electric vehicle. 
     
     
         4 . A system for charging an electric vehicle, comprising:
 an electric vehicle comprising an electrical system and a rooftop mounted charging head configured to electrically couple with a charging connection of a charging station that comprises an overhead charging arm to charge the electrical system;   one or more sensors;   a display; and   a computing system in communication with the vehicle, the computing system comprising a controller that is operatively coupled to one or more of the one or more sensors and the display, comprising one or more executable instructions that, when executed, cause the system to:
 sense a relative location of the charging head with respect to the charging connection using one or more of the one or more sensors; 
 generate relative location information related to the relative location; and 
 display information related to the relative location information. 
   
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the display is a display in the electric vehicle. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein one or more sensors are mounted on the charging station and one or more sensors are mounted on the electric vehicle. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise one or more cameras configured to capture image data of the electric vehicle and the controller is further configure to:
 display the image data on the display.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein one or more of the one or more cameras is positioned behind a moveable door or wiper, wherein the moveable door or wiper is moveable to expose a lens of the one or more cameras. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 4 , further comprising an alignment device, wherein
 the one or more sensors are configured to sense a position and orientation of the alignment device, and   the relative location information is based on the sensed position and orientation of the alignment device.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein
 the charging station comprises at least one charging station sensor, and   the charging station and the electric vehicle are communicatively coupled such that data captured using the at least one charging station sensor is transmitted to the electric vehicle and information displayed on the display of the electric vehicle is based on the data captured using the at least one charging station sensor.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the at least one charging station sensor comprises at least one camera. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the at least one charging station sensor is configured to generate one or more sensing zones for sensing a location of the electric vehicle with respect to the charging station and the display is configured to display information to an operator of the electric vehicle based on the sensed location of the electric vehicle within the one or more sensing zones. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the electric vehicle is an electric bus. 
     
     
         14 . An electric vehicle, comprising:
 an electrical system;   a mounted charging head for receiving an overhead charging connection of a charging arm to charge one or more batteries of the electrical system;   one or more sensors configured to sense a relative location of the charging head with respect to the charging connection; and   a controller configured to:
 capture relative location data from the one or more sensors indicative of a relative location of the electric vehicle charging head with respect to the charging connection; and 
 present information related to the relative location data to an operator of the electric vehicle. 
   
     
     
         15 . The electric vehicle of  claim 14 , wherein one or more of the one or more sensors comprise one or more of lidar, radar, sonar, RFID, or ultrasonic sensors. 
     
     
         16 . The electric vehicle of  claim 14 , wherein the electric vehicle is an electric bus, and wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one camera configured to generate image data and the relative location data is based on the generated image data. 
     
     
         17 . The electric vehicle of  claim 16 , wherein the at least one camera is positioned behind a door and the door is operable to selectively expose the at least one camera based on input from the operator of the electric vehicle. 
     
     
         18 . The electric vehicle of  claim 16 , wherein information displayed to an operator of the electric bus is based on the generated image data. 
     
     
         19 . The electric vehicle of  claim 14 , wherein the information displayed to an operator of the electric vehicle is based on information sensed with the one or more sensors and includes at least one instruction to an operator of the electric vehicle. 
     
     
         20 . The electric vehicle of  claim 19 , wherein the information displayed to an operator of the electric vehicle is based on an alignment device, which alignment device is sensed using one or more sensors.